Gallery
Latest Member Photos
Many of our members are accomplished astrophotographers, and a few are award winning! If you’d like to use a photo for news media or other purposes, please ask as copyright often applies. Email photos@sas.org.au if there is a photo you’d like to use, and remember to credit the photographer.
Well this one was hard fought! M33 Triangulum Galaxy only gets to 31 degrees above the northern horizon here. Captured as Green-HaGB over many nights. Celestron 11” EHD, F7, 1960mm FL / ZWO1600 - Look at all that hydrogen nebulae!! 🔭🍷 #byronbay #scicomm #freebritney
Got my Easter existential crisis memes sorted with a quick night shoot session to say goodbye to the Milky Way season with King Bunny from @bunnyracket ... side note, taking a giant bunny with you into the darkness is a good way to freak strangers out. Canon 6D mk II 15s ISO 3200 f4.0 Tokina 16mm #bunnyracket #donniedarko #jupiter
I photographed a galaxy .. which is rare for me! It took 8.5 hours of usable data in 5 and 10minute exposures over 4 nights. NGC 253 Sculptor with Hydrogen layer to show it’s local nebulae. Details in behind the scenes video : https://youtu.be/ld5X7xRA8Ck #hagb #ghagb #astrophotography #celestronrocks #c11 #zwo1600mm #nsw #byronbay #galaxy #sculptor #universetoday #photographingspace #starstuff #bintelastronomy #bintel
I did not! Oh Hai Mars. Mars on it’s close approach to Earth this week! Really, quite impressively sized which makes life easy. Taken with C11 Edge HD, 2.5x, Zwo174MM, processed in Autostakkert and Winjupos from about 50 minutes of data. BTS video youtu.be/yDAR3I3u9PA #astrophotography #byronbay #mars #marsattacks #firecapture #autostakkert #winjupos #69dudes #cloudywithachanceofmeatball
Jupiter is still bright and overhead each night and although Mars is brighter and really on show this month, Jupiter still continues to be the best planet to photograph ... in my humble opinion! Last night I captured the Great Red Spot and moon Europa leaving its shadow on the surface (pic 2). The first image is derotated in WinJupos so the transit disappears but the surface detail is so much clearer. Taken with Celestron 11” Edge HD and power mate 2.5x magnifier, zwo174mm .. 90 second video stacks (best 15%) with RGB filters. #celestronrocks #jupiter #astrophotography #derotation #juno #winjupos #universetoday #byronbay #nsw
A starless version of the Rosette Nebula for @diegocolonnello because I know they are his favourite 😉 More art than science, these on-trend shots remind me of cityscapes where the photographer has removed all the people. The image isn't "real" because the people aren't there, and yet - the buildings exist. It draws focus to the morphology of the nebula itself and is compelling in it's own way. Reprocess of earlier RASA 8 / Narrowband image using the newly integrated StarNet++ AI / Neural Net tool in PixInsight for star detection and removal.
Celestron 8″ RASA
Baader F2 Highspeed Filter
ZWO 1600mm Cooled CMOS Camera
CGX Mount
17 x 90s Ha
15 x 90s OIII
10 x 90s SII
Total 63 minutes integration #astrophotography #universetoday #celestronrocks #rasa8 #rosette #youresa #byronbay #nsw
A telescope is a time machine they say, looking into the past at events like this that happened long ago, in this case about 3-4000 years ago. But this is also a look into the future of us. The small blue star at the centre was something like our Sun, and eventually collapsed at the end of it’s life and burst violently like this, leaving a good amount of oxygen (blue) and other stuff floating around space ready to be recycled into someone else’s problem. Dumbbell Nebula M27 .. quick integration between cloudy nights, less than 1hr Ha luminesce and ~2hrs colour using C11 EHD telescope at F7, zwo 1600MM and QHY247C #astrophotography #celestronrocks #qhyccd #m27 #dumbell
Did you know you can take photos of the planets during the day? They’re hard to find and almost invisible to the naked eye. The heat brings focus and equipment issues and stacking is harder with less contrast for the software to align with. This is my first try on Jupiter this afternoon at 4:30pm in broad daylight .. the photo isn’t great but doing non-solar astronomy in the day is weird and worth a shot! C11 Edge HD telescope, 2.5x powermate, @qhyccd_astropic QHY462C colour camera. #astrophotography #jupiter #celestronrocks #qhy #qhyccd #byronbay #dayastronomy
Here is a fresh Saturn for you! I didn’t manage to reveal the polar hexagon I know there is room for improvement but I did get the equatorial banding better this time. Saturn is straight up after sunset here in Australia and still looking good! Celestron 11” Edge HD, 2.5x powermate, ZWO RGB filters and ZWO 174MM camera. #astrophotography #byronbay #celestronrocks #saturn
Bleary eyed this morning but I also caught Mars looking incredible with it’s slight remaining phase as it gets closer and it’s polar ice cap! 1am AEST with C11 telescope 🙂 🍅 #astrophotography #byronbay #mars #celestronrocks #themartian #universetoday #publicdomain
OMG I finally nailed it! Jupiter 2hrs ago using @celestronuniverse 11” EHD / 2.5x powermate, RGB filters @zwoasi 174MM & WinJupos! Easily the best planet photo I’ve taken ever! I’ve never got this storm detail before especially near the poles! 🍻🇦🇺🔭 #Jupiter #astrophotography #winjupos #celestronrocks #byronbay
The two craters in the lower left are called Messier and Messier A and were formed by the same impact at a severe angle (1-5°) which @NASAAmes & @Caltech figured out in 1978 by shooting things in their specialist "gun" range / impact chamber. (Taken with C11 Edge HD, 2.5x powermate, & ZWO174MM) #astrophotography #moon #celestronrocks #byronbay #dontvisitnsw
Took this shot of Jupiter in poor conditions last night which isn't too shabby! Jupiter's less popular posterior. Celestron 11" Edge HD, 2.5x Powermate, RGB Filters, ZWO 174MM. Best 7% of 3x90second video frames stacked. #celestronrocks #jupiter #astrophotgraphy #byronbay #dontvisitnsw #jove #youresa #universetoday #photographingspace
Is NGC 7293 the eye of GOD?? Spoiler alert, no. Just a dying star passing wind. Taken this week from the backyard spaceship! Celestron 11" Edge HD, ZWO1600MM, QHY247C, True Colour. Science breakdown of image in new 13min video : YouTube.com/erfmufn .. about 4.5 hours total exposure time over several long nights where most of the data was discarded! It’s the fish that John west rejects that something something ... #astrophotography #celestronrocks #universetoday #youresa #eyeofgod #truecolour #ngc7293 #helix #helixnebula
Just finished this close view of “Corona Australis” 🇦🇺 .. confused, I go on a tear about what the f—- this even is and why it exists in this 10 minute rant and analysis on my YouTube ... https://t.co/c7rxYtA4tr (~3hrs, C11” EHD, ZWO1600MM & QHY268C) #celestronrocks #astrophotography #youresa #universetoday #byronbay #corona #australis
Two insane views of the Milky Way using the newly released @skywatcheraustralia Star Adventurer 2i star tracker and my Canon 6D mk II with its kit lens 28-135mm .. at each extreme. I really can’t take for granted that this view is from my driveway which is nuts. I live in an urban area in Byron Bay but they chose to keep the light pollution down. We all risk losing this view more and more with every street light. First shot is 5x60s and second is 3x120s , both iso 3200 and stacked. #astrophotography #staradventurer #skywatcher #canonaustralia
Here is a test for a colour camera I can’t afford but got to have a play with. Being a colour camera I was able to shoot this core region of the M8 Lagoon nebula without any filters. 21 x 180s with QHY268C-Professional which has a 26MP resolution.. after drizzle this image was massive. Taken with Celestron 11” Edge HD and 0.7x reducer. Camera hands on and behind the scenes on this image on my YouTube. #astrophotography #qhyccd #qhy268c
"MERMAID WATERS" - M8 Nebula Detail - I was doing some test shots under the nearly full moon so didn't expect this to look like much but I can't stop looking at it. The detail is from the wider M8 Lagoon nebula but I focussed in with my big telescope (C11) on the little mermaid feature which is surrounded by at least a dozen bok globules I've never seen before. Normally I'd shoot the lagoon quite wide because the whole area is quite stunning but the dark dust clouds, blue reflection nebula, spires, globules, and cascading tiered emission clouds are all really quite spectacular to see all together. It almost looks like a Japanese painting.
Celestron 11" Edge HD
0.7 X reducer (F7)
22 x 180s / ZWO 1600mm
Colour data from 2019 (QHY12 CCD) #astrophotography #celestronrocks #photographingspace #universetoday #byronbay #nsw #mermaid #mermaidwaters #lagoon
Well it ain't much anymore but Comet Neowise made his way to Australia. No telescope or tracking. Pictured here over Ocean Shores, NSW. Taken from the lighthouse cafe in Byron Bay. 4 x 10s / ISO 3200 / F5.6 / 91mm w/ Canon 6D mk II on a regular tripod. This is comet #6 for my stamp collection of bright comets! (inc McNaught, Lovejoy, Linear, Panstars, Swann) #canonaustralia #byronbay #oceanshores
As I sat on the beach yesterday looking at the clear blue skies and terrible surf I thought “that’s good seeing - finally!” .. Jupiter just past opposition but moon Io went odd-shaped in post despite its shadow being perfectly round. Still ok results with C11 telescope! You can tell Jupiter is near opposition because it’s so large relatively but also because io’s shadow is so close to it. #celestronrocks #astrophotography #planets #youresa #universetoday #byronbay #jupiter #saturn #starstuff
Historical Photos
